Anthill is largely dedicated to the promotion of innovation, entrepreneurship and commercial creativity. Yet, every now and then, we see something that sits perhaps slightly outside the parameters of our usual fare. But we still must share it, for better or worse. Oh-yes. Today is one of those days.
It was Arthur C. Clarke who said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” This clever clip almost demonstrates his point. Almost. Behold mere mortals! (And cue Europe’s Final Countdown.) You are about to witness some ma-gic!
With the return of Australia’s favourite reality television franchise last Sunday night and the animated reactions of this season’s aspiring ‘Masterchefs’ (most especially as Adriano Zumbo unveiled his latest challenging desert), I was reminded of the following clip by English satirist Charlie Brooker. Not only does it include an excerpt from Monty Python but it also demonstrates how reality television can be used to tell a story that is often far from reality.
There’s never a dull moment with that Arnold Schwarzenegger fella around. One minute he’s in London looking incredibly silly on a pushbike – in a suit, no less. The next he’s in Cannes, France, launching his first post-politics project: a TV cartoon series for kids called The Governator.
Confectionery brand Skittles has already infiltrated the pantheon of unforgettable tag-lines with its ‘Taste the Rainbow’ slogan. In this nifty ‘made-for-YouTube’ series of clips, viewers are asked to ‘Touch the rainbow’. The concept is simple, novel and we challenge you to not hunger for a Skittle once this “cute but weird kitty cat” has its way with you.
For those who wonder why we chose Anthill as the name of this humble endeavor glowing on your screen, we offer this video, in which researchers create a 3D blueprint of a huge colony of ants. Take a look. It’s rather stunning. And the results speak for themselves.
You have to hand it to Japan. While other nations are busy rattling sabres, fretting over same-sex marriage or deifying Justin Bieber, the Asian giant gives us Hatsune Miku — sythesised singing software that has triggered an earthquake of creativity.
Australia’s self-appointed online retail antagonist Ruslan Kogan — while possibly enjoying a slow day at the office — has crunched his online traffic numbers to reveal that the most popular names of 2010 online shoppers on the Kogan site were John, Peter, David, Michael and Paul (in addition to some information that you might actually one day use, on how and why Australians shop online).
We find it amusing that uberbaddie Darth Vader would be chosen by Volkswagen to serve as the hero in this commercial for the 2012 Passat. Not only that, but they slap the cape and helmet on a kid who’s, what? Five? Six? What say you? Inspired commercial creativity or the lowest form of pandering?
Companies will go to great lengths — and heights — to promote products. In the stunt captured so cooly on this video, Samsung attached memory cards to 100 paper airplanes and launched them from the edge of space.
You can shut down the Internet in Egypt, Mr. Mubarak. You can threaten to cut off mobile phone communication. But you can’t silence the people — especially little Juju.
If your reaction after watching this video is “they’re yanking my chain,” you’re not alone. We had a similar reaction. It doesn’t seem feasible than an app could not just translate the words on an object, but project the translation on the object itself. Right?
In 1998, Australian entrepreneur Rob Cecconi heard some friends were having a tough time getting tickets to the Daytona 500 NASCAR race in the U.S. Cecconi poked around and learned Australia had few travel agencies that booked trips to sports events. Game, set, match. Sportsnet Holidays was born.
Two thousand years ago, a Greek mechanic created a machine that predicted the motions of the celestial bodies. The device, pulled up from a shipwreck in 1901, became known as the Antikythera Mechanism. You have to wonder what that ancient Greek gearhead would think if he saw what’s in this video.
It’s hardly a laughing matter; An Australian national accused of espionage and treason by a foreign power, excluded from the services of multi-national financial institutions at the request of an excitable few, hung out to dry at home by a PM who misread ‘the public mood’, all for publishing information illegally acquired by others. Yet, NMA.TV has once again managed to turn the serious into the absurd.
When this commercial for the most recent edition in the ‘Call of Duty’ franchise was released in early November, I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cringe. The genius of the 60 second advertisement, by Omnicom Group’s TBWA/Chiat/Day, is that it’s for a video game but does not feature any footage of the game itself.
Surprisingly frequently, I find myself making the case that there has never been a safer time to live on the planet. Sure, we’re confronted daily by news of wars, murders and other forms of human-inflicted violence. But, if you refer to the stats, things are actually pretty good, as this engaging video demonstrates.
We love sharing some of the more eclectic, unusual and just plain absurd inventions that cross our desk. Sure, we laughed at the Comfort Wipe, gaped at the Snuggie Blanket and marveled at the most useless machine ever. But there’s something about this three-and-a-half minute product demonstration that defies explanation.
Social media ‘gurus’ are the latest targets of ridicule in this Xtranormal animation. The text-to-animation software has made it possible for amateur film-makers, from bedrooms and home studies the world-over, to focus their ire on almost any community group, profession or industry, from iPhone acolytes to Tea Party zealots. Created by copywriters Jason Schmall and…
There are already countless videos on the Interwebs that present side-by-side comparisons of the most popular smart-phones. You know — which has the fastest browser, the brightest screen, the quickest boot-up. This is not one of those videos. All we can say to the person who put this video together is, “Dude, we wish we had that kind of money to burn.”
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